Distinct Cellular Immune Responses to SARS-CoV-2 in Pregnant Women.
Abstract
Pregnant women are at increased risk of adverse outcomes, including preeclampsia and preterm birth, that may result from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Pregnancy imprints specific maternal immune responses that can modulate host susceptibility to microbial infection; therefore, recent studies have focused on the humoral response against SARS-CoV-2 in pregnant women. However, the pregnancy-specific cellular immune responses triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection are poorly understood. In this study, we undertook an extensive in vitro investigation to determine the cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 particles and proteins/peptides in pregnant women. First, we show that SARS-CoV-2 particles do not alter the pregnancy-specific oxidative burst of neutrophils and monocytes. Yet, SARS-CoV-2 particles/proteins shift monocyte activation from the classical to intermediate states in pregnant, but not in nonpregnant, women. Furthermore, SARS-CoV-2 proteins, but not particles or peptide pools, mildly enhance T cell activation during pregnancy. As expected, B cell phenotypes are heavily modulated by SARS-CoV-2 particles in all women; yet, pregnancy itself further modified such responses in these adaptive immune cells. Lastly, we report that pregnancy itself governs cytokine responses in the maternal circulation, of which IFN-beta and IL-8 were diminished upon SARS-CoV-2 challenge. Collectively, these findings highlight the differential in vitro responses to SARS-CoV-2 in pregnant and nonpregnant women and shed light on the immune mechanisms implicated in coronavirus disease 2019 during pregnancy.
Authors: | Gomez-Lopez N, Romero R, Tao L, Gershater M, Leng Y, Zou C, Farias-Jofre M, Galaz J, Miller D, Tarca AL, Arenas-Hernandez M, Bhatti G, Garcia-Flores V, Liu Z, Para R, Kanninen T, Hadaya O, Paredes C, Xu Y, |
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Journal: | J Immunol;2022Apr04. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.2101123 |
Year: | 2022 |
PubMed: | PMID: 35379748 (Go to PubMed) |